Council lets slip potential for positive change

Yesterday's Land Transport Regional meeting let slip the means

of both resolving short term congestion and achieving long term sustainability.

Paul Bruce, a candidate for Greater Wellington, said it was about time the Mayors and Regional Councillors got the bull by the horns, and put in place some economic tools such as a congestion tax, which would move business and transport in the Capital to more sustainable patterns.

The Regional meeting yesterday considered a Road pricing study as part of a Travel Demand Management Plan, which could improve transport network efficiency through the use of congestion pricing. Any such scheme would provide exemptions and

extra support for local public transport. A decision for Council to proceed was deferred with a further report back in September 2008.

Mr Bruce said this matter should have been treated with urgency and it was another lost opportunity. A congestion tax had been applied very successfully overseas, and if implemented here in Wellington, could be fine tuned to achieve desired outcomes in areas of gridlock, while providing a support for essential upgrades in public transport.

The urgency of a transition has been reinforced by the recent publication of reports from the International Energy Agency, which showed that spare capacity in oil production will dry up over the next five years, leading to a supply crunch in the world's oil markets, and also by a recent report from NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studios,

which showed that human induced climate change impacts was accelerating.

Paul Bruce

Candidate for Greater Wellington Regional Council

Ends

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